Friday, 4 May 2018

End Christian’s“Energy and Strength” was one of my
favorite unclassifiable or “outlier” records of last year. On the surface, you’d assume you were looking
at a metal supergroup, with members from Brutal Truth, Fad Nauseum, Starkweather, and Hex Inverter all making contributions. But you’d be dead wrong. A multi-genre sojourn through electronic,
hardcore, goth and industrial experimentation, it was original and oddly
moving. On May 25th, the
loose collective drops their 2nd album, “Bach Part One”, an even more dramatic step away from metal
expectations. Despite some killer guitar
work and key contributions from modern metal legends, it is a masterful slice
of electronic pop music. Founder and key
member Christian McKenna took the time to speak with me about the project’s
foundations, the collaborative process on the new record, live performances,
and the wealth of material coming from End Christian in the
future. We also have the honor of
debuting one of my favorite tracks of the record, “Great Escapes”, featuring featuringJustin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu. “Bach Part One” is available for preorder
athere

Christian can you tell us a little about your musical
background and your story of the genesis of the End Christian project?

CM:
I’ve been playing in a bunch of bands over the years. Usually a more traditional band-type setting…
4-5 guys where we met with some frequency to keep a set sharp and to be ready
in case something came along. I felt
kind of stagnant with doing things that way and just rehashing things over and
over again in order to stay sharp for some kind of performance. I got fried from doing gigs and wanted to
pull back on that and focus on writing a bit more. I wanted to blow up the way I was doing
stuff.

I’ve
been able to play with great musicians over the years, but I felt like I was
stagnating a bit. I wanted to be a bit
more spontaneous with my writing and try some ideas I hadn’t gotten the chance
to try before.

On “Energy and
Strength” you worked with Richard Hoak, Gillian Dreadful and Vincent Rosa. How do they figure into End Christian as it
exists on the new record? How structured
is it as a key core of musicians?

I
think I did a bit of a disservice to those people by saying that those people
were in the band before I even asked if they’d be in the band. I was fortunate enough that when I reached
out, everyone was in! A band I played
with, Hex Inverter, had played a show with Starkweather a year or two ago, and I remember Vincent had
come up and commented that he dug what we were doing. I made a mental note that maybe I’d have the
opportunity to work with him. And then I
reached out to other bass players who fell through, but when I got back to
Vincent, he was willing.

I
had done some stuff with Rich in the past.
I made it clear to him that, even though he played drums on the first
record, I was coming at him more for his openness. He has another project called Peacemaker that’s kind of an ambient, noise, jazz freakout
stuff, and I was thinking more of THAT kind of stuff, but I’d never specified
that. When we first got together he’d
focused on drums. On this record, he
doesn’t play drums at all. He does some
soundscape type stuff and he wrote lyrics to “Anywhere with You”, which I think is a beautiful song. He sings the lead on that one, and does some
background vocals. That’s some of the
stuff from his wheelhouse I wanted to integrate into what we were doing.

That song, “Anywhere with You”, is particularly
affecting. I wouldn’t have figured that
the guy who plays drums on the key Brutal Truth records would have created
that.

Right on! That’s what’s
beautiful to me about it. It’s a simple
lyric. It isn’t vague or anything. It’s not deceptive, it’s just a love song
he’s singing to his wife. It’s very
vulnerable! Alap and I were sitting at
the board and the song started from a loop I’d created from “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes. We manipulated
it a bit and Alap had thrown down some beats.
Rich was sitting real quiet in the background and he popped up and said “I think I have something!” And that
song came out of nowhere and I was just blown away. We threw on some harmony vocals and tweaks
but it was pretty close to what he originally laid down there.

I know you’re a progressive rock fan, and
it’s funny to hear this and compare it with the often forgotten, 80s synth
driven era of a lot of those bands – Genesis, King Crimson, even Rush. How do those influences play out for End
Christian?

A lot of people are always
like, “I only like the Peter Gabriel Genesis” and I like that stuff too, but I like the
stuff in the 80s! I think that it
doesn’t get enough recognition with bands later – like Radiohead,
I think that’s where that stuff came from.
And that stuff, King Crimson and Genesis and Yes, that holds up
really well for me still. The same way
that Black Flag and Minutemen
records hold up. That all sounds
relevant when I listen to it now.

What is the story behind the title, Bach
Part One?

Originally the record was supposed
to be a double album. Alap engineered
and produced on “Energy and Strength”,
but he got really involved on this one.
He co-wrote maybe 75% of this one, and got really waist deep in it and
is a member of the band for this one.
When we were going back we had tracked around 20 songs, and when we were
sequencing everything out, he talked me out of releasing a double album. Which is not a terrible idea because I know
attention spans are limited, so we’re releasing in two parts. “Part
Two” will be released at a later date.
We have about four albums worth of stuff right now recorded and a couple
other records we’ll start recording in the fall.

You have a lot of people stepping in for guest
roles in this: Justin Broadrick from Godflesh and Jesu, Kevin Hufnagel from
Gorguts, Andrew Southard from Giant Squid, Mike Hill from Tombs, Sheena Powell
who I hadn’t heard of before but I can absolutely see why you’d want her to
contribute to the record after hearing her vocals. Can you tell me what the process is of
approaching these people and saying “Hey I want you on an electronic pop
record!”

I don’t think I directly said “Hey let’s do an electronic pop record.”
*laughs* I’m half kidding. Kevin I know from working at Relapse
and we’ve known each other a long time.
He’s only on this record for one track but he’s all over the next record
playing baritone ukulele. Almost as a
percussive instrument along with 808s.
Alap has me convinced that the 808 is the new riff. I’m almost of the mentality that guitar is
dead, and the space and room between 808 hits on these records are letting
listeners connect the dots by themselves.

Has there been any talk about performing
in a live setting?

We had a rehearsal last week
actually! We got together last weekend
for like the first End Christian practice
ever with the mindframe that we were trying to work on a set. We do want to play some shows and celebrate
all the different records that we’re making.
When we got together over the weekend we only tried material from “Energy and Strength” since it was the
only stuff three or four of us had gotten into a room and tried to jam
together. It’s not going to sound
exactly like the record but that’s pretty cool.
Rich had the idea to maybe do a live record since Ballinger and a few of
the other songs are true to the spirit of the writing but sound a lot
different.

“Great Escapes” (premiere above), one of my favorites, was a spooky
track but almost had a sensual feeling – like a late 80s, early 90s R&B
track. It wouldn’t be out of place as a
Sade track.

I’m
a huge Sade fan! I’ve been a huge Sade
fan. You made my fucking life with that *laughs*. I can’t believe you said that. I’ve been on a huge Sade kick.

I
had some keyboards and lyrics and Alap had some electronic stuff. I reached out to Justin and wanted him to
finish mixing the song. He talked about
going for a Jesu type vibe and turned it into a kind of mood piece. I can’t say we were trying to do a Sade thing
at the time but I’ll take it as a compliment!
And his guitar at the end is abrupt and kind of ambient but you can tell
it’s Justin. He definitely left his
mark.

When
you said sensual – Alap and I, joking around, said we wanted to be playing
music for women and not dudes with beards and wallet chains.

What’s the plans for the rest of 2018 and 2019?

“Bach Part
One”
is coming out in May. We have a series
of vinyl coming out on Alap’s label, Internet and Weed. It’s kind of a new world for me but those
will have some songs with a capella versions and maybe some instrumental
versions for DJs to use. Then we’ll
finish up the other record with the baritone uke. We’re talking with some other labels now and
I think that one will come out in the fall.
It’s weird that we’re talking about this Bach record now but I can’t
wait to NOT talk about it again. I think
in the fall we’re going to record another zigzag from some of these
things. A kind of doomy, noisy record,
with Vince doing what he’s known for and Rich doing drums again, and do it as a
power trio. And then a string of shows
in the fall to celebrate the release of all this music. We just gotta figure out how to play it.

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